Method of playing a basketball game

ABSTRACT

The present invention relates a method of playing a basketball game on a relatively rectangular court. Two opposing teams have hoops at opposite ends of the court. Each team includes four active players. Teams score five points by shooting a basketball into the hoop from beyond a five point line. A team scores four points by making a shot from beyond a four point line, but not beyond the five point line. A team scores three points by making a shot from beyond a three point line, but not beyond the four point line. A team scores two points for shots made from in front of the three point line. A team scores one point when an opposing player commits a foul. Each team&#39;s points are aggregated over the course of a game and a winner is designated when a team reaches one hundred and one points.

FIELD OF THE DISCLOSURE

The present invention relates to a new basketball game, including rulesand regulations governing playing a game involving a basketball hoop anda specialized court.

BACKGROUND

Dr. James Naismith invented the game of basketball in 1891 as a methodof promoting physical activity on rainy days and long, cold winters.Basketball started by using a peach basket nailed to a gymnasium walland a soccer ball. As time elapsed, the game evolved to use a backboard,hoop, net, and specialized ball that have become synonymous with thesport today.

Originally, the game only had thirteen rules governing game-play, but astime has progressed, the number of rules has greatly expanded. Forexample, originally, basketball did not allow for dribbling of the ball.Thus, when dribbling was introduced, new regulations were added to thegame. Other examples of rules not included originally with the game, butthat have become synonymous with basketball include the three pointshot, the shot clock, illegal defenses, and, more recently the defensiveblocking foul arc under the basket.

There are several major governing bodies that outline the rules ofbasketball. For example, in the United States, the National BasketballAssociation (NBA) uses its own specific set of rules. Similarly, theNational College Athletic Association (NCAA) sets the rules played byNCAA colleges across the United States. The International BasketballFederation (FIBA) sets the rules for most non-U.S. basketball leaguesand international competition. Although the basic rules dictating thegame are roughly the same across each governing body and league, thevarious nuances of each rule set can be frustrating for players and fansalike.

Furthermore, even as the level of athleticism has increased over time,the entertainment level of the game has decreased. As with many games, akey to making a game entertaining is to have lots of scoring and minimalstoppages in play. Stoppages in play have increased as more rules havebeen added and more fouls called. Scoring has also decreasedsignificantly over the last twenty-five years. In the 1984-85 NBAseason, the average points scored by each team was 110.8 points, but bythe 2010-2011 season, the average points scored by each team dropped to99.6 points.

Part of the problem associated with the loss of scoring andentertainment can be attributed to game strategies that take advantageof the rules in an attempt to give a team an advantage. Some coaches andteams have developed strategies for taking advantage of the rules toslow a game down and allow for an inferior team to remain competitivewith an athletically superior opponent. For example, in NCAA basketball,it is common for inferior teams to rely upon using a full 35-second shotclock during every offensive possession. Coupled with the use of zonebased defenses that work to maximize the time it takes for an opponentto shoot, the number of scoring chances the opponent has during a gameis limited leading to a close low-scoring game that is often painfullyboring to watch.

Another example that is often used in the NBA is described by the term“hack-a-Shaq.” “Hack-a-Shaq” refers to a strategy that involvespurposefully fouling a poor free throw shooting member of the opposingteam. This strategy first started occurring in the waning minutes oftight games, but it has increasingly been used during random portions ofgames. This strategy has led to long stretches of games filled with gamestoppages for fouls and free throws leading to increased game timessince fouls cause a stop in the game clock and the agony of watchingplayers constantly miss free throws. The game length is furtherincreased due to the constant substitutions associated with thisstrategy. Oftentimes, teams substitute in poor, rarely used players forthe sole intent of fouling another player when a team is on defense andthen substituting that player out as soon as the player has committed afoul.

Thus, despite improvements in player skill and athleticism, theentertainment value of basketball has decreased due to increasedstoppages in play that have been fostered by new rules and coachingstrategies. It is with these and other issues in mind that variousaspects of the present disclosure were developed.

SUMMARY

Implementations of the present disclosure involve a system and/or methodfor a new version of playing basketball. This version of basketballallows for the scoring of one point for a foul committed by a defensiveplayer, two, three, four, or five points for making a basket dependingon the location of the player when taking a shot. The game is dividedinto four quarters, but there is no game clock. Quarters end when oneteam reaches a designated point threshold. The game is over when oneteam scores one hundred and one or more points.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a diagram depicting a Hoops 101 basketball court in accordancewith various embodiments of the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The present invention relates to a variation of the game of basketball.The game uses many of the same rules as conventional basketball, butincludes several changes or differences. The key to the presentinvention is a fast-paced game that does not allow for frequent stoppagein play. Implementations of the present disclosure involve a method forplaying a basketball game. In particular, the present disclosureprovides a set of rules for playing Hoops 101, a game that is similar totraditional basket ball in that it involves opposing teams of playerstrying to score points by shooting a basketball through a circular hoopand trying to prevent the other team from doing the same. Unliketraditional basketball, Hoops 101 does not allow for stoppages in playoutside of breaks between quarters.

Playing Hoops 101 involves two teams of eight players pitted againsteach other. The game is a race to score one hundred and one points.Thus, the first team to one hundred and one points is declared thewinner. Each team fields four players on a court at a time and has abench consisting of the remaining four players. Neither team includescoaches or other members outside of the players.

Game-play involves each team attempting to shoot a basketball through ahoop or basket to accrue points. While a team is attempting to shoot theball through the basket, the other team is tasked with defending thebasket. Players without the ball may move freely around the court, butthe player with the ball must either dribble while moving or pass theball to another player. A player may take up to two steps withoutdribbling the ball, but a third step results in a violation andpossession of the ball is turned over to the other team.

Referring to FIG. 1, Hoops 101 may be played on a substantiallyrectangular court 100 that includes baskets 200, 205 at opposing ends ofa court. In one example, the court may be rectangular in shape andmeasure roughly ninety-four feet long and fifty-four feet wide. In otherexamples, the court may the same size as a conventional NBA court(ninety-four feet long and fifty feet wide), a conventional FIBA court(28 meters long and fifteen meters wide), or any other court. In thedepicted example, two short sides 105, 110 and two longer sides 115, 120form the boundaries of the court. As in regular basketball, the shortersides 105, 110 may be referred to as the baselines. The baskets 200, 205may be located in the midpoint of each baseline and may be placedapproximately ten feet above the ground. The court may include a halfcourt line 125 positioned across the middle of the court 100 thatdivides the court into two sides 110, 120. The court 100 also includes athree-point line 130, 140 and a four-point line 135, 145 on each side ofthe court 110, 120. Unlike NBA and FIBA, there is no over and backpenalty.

The three and four-point lines are arcs or semi-circles centered at thehoop and starting and ending at the baseline. In one example, thethree-point line may be positioned at twenty feet from the hoop, whilethe four-point line is positioned twenty-five feet from the hoop.Optionally, the radius of the three and four-point lines may be varieddepending on court size constraints. For example, when using a theslightly narrower NBA sized court, the three and four-point lines may bebrought closer to the basket, for example at twenty and twenty-threefeet respectively.

In the depicted example, the court also includes eight inboundingcircles 150, 155, 160, 165, 170, 175, 180, 185 located out-of-bounds forinbounding the ball after a stoppage in play. After a basket is made,the defending team may take the ball out from anywhere out of boundsalong the baseline. When a foul or violation is committed, the ball maybe inbounded from the inbounding circle closest to where the infractionoccurred. The ball must be put into play within five seconds of a playerreceiving the ball at the inbounding location. The basketball gamedisclosed here does not have any free throws after a player has beenfouled.

The team benches 190, 195 are also positioned out-of-bounds and includefour slots for the bench players to sit.

Hoops 101 may allow for the scoring of points in two ways. First, pointsmay be scored for shooting the ball through the hoop. Depending on thelocation of the shooter points may then be awarded. For example, thecourt may be divided into a variety of zones that are bordered by theboundaries of the court itself, the three-point line, the four-pointline, and the mid-court line. For example, the court may include atwo-point zone, a three-point zone, a four-point zone, and a five-pointzone. The zones may be located such that more difficult shots areawarded more points. For example, the area closest to the basket may bedesignated as the two-point zone and any player how makes a basket whilestanding in that zone may cause two points to be awarded to his team.Similarly, the five-point zone may be the zone that is furthest awayfrom a team's basket and the three and four-point zones may be betweenthe other two zones.

In the event that a player misses a shot, any player may touch the ballonce it has touched the rim of the basket 200. Once the ball touches therim, there is no offensive or defensive goal tending.

In various embodiments, the two-point zone may include the area betweenthe three-point line 130, 140 and the basket 200, 205. The three-pointzone may include the area between the three-point line 130, 140 and thefour-point line 135, 145. The four-point zone may include the areabetween the four-point line 135, 145 and the mid-court line 125. Thefive-point zone may include the area behind the mid-court line 125.

Each of the benches 190, 195 may comprise a queue, or afirst-in-first-out bench. This means that only the player at the frontof the bench queue e.g. in slot 1, may substitute into the game, and anyplayers substituted out of the game are added to the end of the queuee.g. at slot 4. For example, the bench queue includes a first player ina first position, a second player in a second position, a third playerin the third position, and a fourth player in a fourth position. When aplayer leaves the game for a substitution, the player in the firstposition enters the game. The players in the second, third, and fourthpositions move up one spot to the first, second, and third positions,and the incoming player is placed into the fourth position. Players maybe substituted one at a time at any time their team has possession ofthe basketball, but may only enter the court from the inboundinglocation closest to their bench, here at the inbounding circles 150,155. A team may make one substation per offensive possession. A playersubstituting into the game does not need to check in with the scorer'stable.

A foul is an infraction by an offensive or defensive player thatinvolves improper physical contact that allows the offending player togain an unfair advantage over another player. Each player is allowed upto six personal fouls. A foul by a defensive player results in a pointbeing awarded to the offense. If the player that was fouled was fouledwhile shooting and making a basket, then the offense is awarded thepoints for the basket in addition to the point for the foul. Possessionof the ball is then turned over to the defense and game-play continues.If there was no shot made during the foul, then the offense is awardedthe point, but retains possession. The offense may then throw the ballin from one of the designated out-of-bounds circles. Unlike traditionalbasketball, no fouls are called for charges. In the case of a foul, theoffending player is forced to substitute out of the game and the playerin the first bench position replaces the fouling player.

In the NBA and FIBA basketball, it is common for a defensive player tostand stationary when an offensive player is running towards thedefensive player. In the NBA and FIBA it is common for the defensiveplayer to fall down or flop when the offensive player makes any contact.In Hoop 101, the defensive player is not allowed to fall down onpurpose. Instead, a defensive player must make a play on the ball.

Once a team scores, the non-scoring team given possession of the ball.Unlike NBA and FIBA basketball, the team with possession of the balldoes not have a ten second time limit for crossing midcourt 125. In NBAand FIBA basketball, there is a strict five second rule. It isenvisioned that in the present disclosure the five second rule is notstrictly enforced.

If an offensive player commits a foul, possession of the ball is turnedover to the defense that may subsequently inbound the ball from one ofthe designated inbounds locations. As with defensive fouls, theoffending offensive player must substitute out of the game, but nopoints are awarded to the other team.

Similar to NBA and FIBA basketball, the game may be divided intoquarters. Unlike other basketball games, Hoops 101 does not use a gameclock dividing the game into quarters. Instead, quarters are based onpoints scored. For example, the first quarter ends when one team scorestwenty-five or more points. The second quarter ends when one team scoresfifty or more points. The third quarter ends when one team scoresseventy-five or more points. Each quarter begins with the team the teamwith the least amount of points inbounding the ball from the inboundinglocation in front of the team's bench 150, 155. The breaks between thefirst and second and third and fourth quarters may be roughly threeminutes long, while the halftime break between the second and thirdquarters may be roughly five minutes long. Additionally, each team isallowed only one time out per game.

The game ends when one team scores more than one hundred points (i.e.one hundred and one or more points). In the case of a player beingfouled while attempting a shot to win the game, no point is awarded forthe foul. Instead, a “sudden victory” throw-in may occur. In this case asingle defender is positioned below the offense's basket 200, 205 andthe offense's player that was fouled is positioned at the three-pointline 130, 140, directly in-between the two baskets. All other playersmay be positioned outside of the four-point line 135, 145. To resumegame-play, the defender standing under the basket throws a low,one-bounce bounce pass to the offensive player standing at thethree-point line 130, 140. The remaining offensive and defensive playersmust stand behind the four-point line 135, 145 during the throw-in, butwhen the offensive player receives the ball, the game action continues.After the referee makes a call, the ball is immediately put into play atany one of the designated circles 150, 155, 160, 165, 170, 175, 180, 185out of bounds.

A shot clock may be implemented to count down from eighteen seconds whena team is on offense. If the team does not score before the shot clockexpires, then possession of the ball may be turned over to the opposingteam. The shot clock may be reset to eighteen or less seconds in variousinstances. For example, if the defense commits a foul the shot clock maybe reset. Similarly, if the offense shoots a shot and the shot touchesthe rim, the shot clock may be reset. Also, if a defender kicks the ballwith his foot, the shot clock may be reset.

The foregoing merely illustrates the principles of the invention.Various modifications and alterations to the described embodiments willbe apparent to those skilled in the art in view of the teachings herein.It will thus be appreciated that those skilled in the art will be ableto devise numerous systems, arrangements and methods which, although notexplicitly shown or described herein, embody the principles of theinvention and are thus within the spirit and scope of the presentinvention. From the above description and drawings, it will beunderstood by those of ordinary skill in the art that the particularembodiments shown and described are for purposes of illustrations onlyand are not intended to limit the scope of the present invention.References to details of particular embodiments are not intended tolimit the scope of the invention.

1. A method of playing a basketball game, wherein the basketball game isplayed between a first team and a second team, wherein each teamincludes four active players, and wherein the basketball game is playedon a relatively rectangular court with a first team's hoop positioned atone end of the court and a second team's hoop positioned at an oppositeend of the court, the method comprising: scoring points by at least oneof: scoring five points by making a shot with a basketball into the hoopfrom beyond a five point line; scoring four points by making a shot withthe basketball into the hoop from beyond a four point line, but notbeyond the five point line; scoring three points by making a shot withthe basketball into the hoop from beyond a three point line, but notbeyond the four point line; scoring two points for shots that are madewith the basketball into the hoop from in front of the three point line;and scoring one point by a player committing a foul; wherein each team'spoints are aggregated over the course of a game and a winner isdesignated when a team reaches one hundred and one points.
 2. The methodof claim 1, wherein the relatively rectangular court comprises aninety-four foot long, by fifty-four foot wide court having a firstbasket positioned at a height of ten feet above the ground andtwenty-seven feet from the long edge of the court.
 3. The method ofclaim 1, wherein the five point line comprises the midway point of thecourt, the four point line comprises a half-circle with twenty-five footradius with a center point at the hoop, and the three point linecomprises a half-circle with twenty foot radius with a center point atthe hoop.
 4. The method of claim 1, wherein each team comprises a benchof four players who may enter and leave the game one at a time at anytime the bench player's team has possession of the basketball.
 5. Themethod of claim 4, wherein the bench comprises a four player queue,wherein a bench player that enters the game is the bench player at thefront of the queue and a player leaving the game is added to the lastposition in the queue.
 6. The method of claim 4, wherein a foulingplayer must leave the game and be replaced by a bench player at thefront of a four player queue and the fouling player is added to an endof the queue.
 7. The method of claim 1, further comprising a suddenvictory throw-in when a player is fouled attempting a shot to win thegame, wherein no point is awarded for the foul, a single defender maystand beneath the hoop and bounce pass the ball to an offensive playerstanding at the three point line, wherein the remaining players standbehind the four point line until the offensive player receives the ball,and then the game resumes.
 8. The method of claim 1, further comprisingan eighteen second shot clock counting down when from the point that ateam obtains possession of the ball, wherein when the eighteen secondshot clock reaches zero, possession of the ball is turned over.
 9. Themethod of claim 1, wherein the game is broken into four quarters,wherein the end of the first quarter is when a team scores twenty-fivepoints, the end of the second quarter is when one team scores fiftypoints, the end of the third quarter is when one team scoresseventy-five points, and the end of the game is when one team scores onehundred and one points.
 10. The method of claim 1, further comprisingfollowing at least one rule from a basketball rule book, wherein thebasketball rule book comprises at least one of a an Official Rules ofthe National Basketball Association rule book, a FIBA officialbasketball rules rule book, and a National Collegiate AthleticAssociation rule book.
 11. A basketball court comprising: asubstantially rectangular shaped playing surface comprising a firstshort side, a second sort side, a first long side, and a second longside, wherein the sides connect at substantially right angles formingthe substantially rectangular shaped playing surface; a half-court linebisecting the first long side and the second long side; a firstbasketball hoop connected to a first backboard positioned above theplaying surface at along the first short line at a relative midpoint ofthe first short line. a second basketball hoop connected to a secondbackboard positioned above the playing surface at along the second shortline at a relative midpoint of the second short line. a firstsemi-circle with a first radius, extending from a first starting pointon the first short side near the first long side and ending at a firstending point on the first short side near the second long side; a secondsemi-circle with a second radius, extending from a second starting pointon the first short side near the first long side and ending at a secondending point the first short side near the second long side; a thirdsemi-circle with the first radius, extending from a third starting pointon the second short side near the first long side and ending at a thirdending point the second short side near the second long side; a fourthsemi-circle with the second radius, extending from a fourth startingpoint the second short side near the first long side and ending at afourth ending point the second short side near the second long side;wherein the first radius is less than the second radius.
 12. Thebasketball court of claim 11, further comprising: a first inboundingcircle positioned outside the substantially rectangular shaped playingarea along the first short side between the first starting point and thesecond starting point; a second inbounding circle positioned outside thesubstantially rectangular shaped playing area along the first short sidebetween the first ending point and the second ending point; a thirdinbounding circle positioned outside the substantially rectangularshaped playing area along the second short side between the thirdstarting point and the fourth starting point; a fourth inbounding circlepositioned outside the substantially rectangular shaped playing areaalong the first short side between the third ending point and the fourthending point; a fifth inbounding circle positioned outside thesubstantially rectangular shaped playing area along the first long sidesubstantially equal distant from the first short side and the half-courtline; a sixth inbounding circle positioned outside the substantiallyrectangular shaped playing area along the first long side substantiallyequal distant from the second short side and the half-court line; aseventh inbounding circle positioned outside the substantiallyrectangular shaped playing area along the second long side substantiallyequal distant from the first short side and the half-court line; and aneighth inbounding circle positioned outside the substantiallyrectangular shaped playing area along the second long side substantiallyequal distant from the second short side and the half-court line. 13.The method of claim 1, where there are no ten second calls.
 14. Themethod of claim 1, where there are no free throws.
 15. The method ofclaim 1, where there are no over and back calls.
 16. The method of claim1, where there are no closely guarded five second calls.
 17. The methodof claim 1, where there are no calls against an offensive or defensiveplayer for goal-tending after ball touches the rim.
 18. The method ofclaim 1, where substitutions may come in one at a time per offensivepossession, without checking in at the scorer's table.
 19. The method ofclaim 1, where there is one time out allowed per team per game.
 20. Themethod of claim 1, where there are no taking charges or flopping. 21.The method of claim 1, where the defensive player must make a defensiveplay instead of taking a charge.
 22. The method of claim 1, where afterthe referee makes a call, the ball is immediately put into play at anyone of the designated circles out of bounds.